NO. 508<\/b><\/p>\n
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 10TH, 1863, <\/b><\/p>\n
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,<\/i><\/p>\n
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cI have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.\u201d \u2014 Isaiah 14:19.<\/i><\/p>\n
WE might gain much solace by considering what God has not<\/i> said. What he has<\/i> said is inexpressibly full of comfort and delight; what he has not<\/i> said is scarcely less rich in consolation. It was one of these \u201csaid nots<\/i>\u201d which preserved the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, for \u201cthe Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven.\u201d \u2014 2 Kings 14:27. In our text we have an assurance that God will<\/i> answer prayer, because he hath \u201cnot<\/i> said unto the seed of Israel, Seek ye my face in vain.\u201d You, who write bitter things against yourselves, I would have you remember that, let your doubts and fears say what they will, if God<\/i> has not cut you off from mercy there is no room for despair: even the voice of conscience is of little weight if it be not seconded by the voice of God. What God has<\/i> said tremble at! But suffer not your own fears and suspicions to overwhelm you with despondency and sinful despair. Many timid persons have been vexed by the suspicion that there may be something in God\u2019s decree which shuts them<\/i> out from all hope \u2014 some secret, written in the great roll of destiny, which renders it certain that if they did pray and seek the Lord he would not be found of them. Our text is a complete refutation to that troublesome fear. \u201cI have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I have not said,\u201d even in the secret of my unsearchable decree, \u201cSeek ye my face in vain.\u201d The decrees are \u201cspoken in secret\u201d \u2014 the decrees are<\/i> hidden as \u201cin a dark place of the earth;\u201d but it is absolutely certain that the Lord has said nothing in any of them or anywhere else which can be interpreted to mean, \u201cSeek ye my face in vain.\u201d Oh! no, brother; that truth which God has so clearly revealed, that he will<\/i> hear the prayer of those who call upon him, cannot be contravened by anything which God may have spoken elsewhere. He has so firmly, so truthfully, so righteously spoken, that there can be no equivocation. He does not, like the Sibyls, speak mysteriously with a double tongue, nor, like the Delphic oracle, reveal his mind in unintelligible words; but he speaks plainly and positively, \u201cAsk, and ye shall receive.\u201d O that all of you would accept this sure truth \u2014 that prayer must and shall be heard, and that never, even in the secrets of eternity; never, even in the council-chamber of the covenant, has the Lord said unto any living soul, \u201cSeek ye my face in vain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposition I come to deal with this morning is this, \u2014 that those who seek God, through Jesus Christ, in God\u2019s own appointed way, cannot, by any possibility, seek him in vain; that earnest, penitent, prayerful hearts, though they may be delayed for a time, can never be sent away with a final denial. \u201cHe that calleth upon the name of the Lord shall<\/i> be saved; he that seeketh findeth<\/i>; he that asketh receiveth<\/i>; unto him that knocketh it shall<\/i> be opened.\u201d I shall prove this, first, by the negative, as our text has it \u2014 \u201cI have not<\/i> said, seek ye me in vain;\u201d and then, briefly, by the positive. Oh, may God give us his Holy Spirit, that while I am preaching comfort may be given to many troubled hearts.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
I. <\/b>First, then, By The Negative. It is not<\/i> possible, that a man should sincerely, in God\u2019s own appointed way, seek for mercy and eternal life, and not find it. It is not possible, that a man should earnestly, from his heart, pray unto God, and yet a gracious answer be finally refused. And that for several reasons.<\/p>\n
1. <\/b>We will suppose the case \u2014 suppose that sincere prayer could be fruitless, then the question arises, Why, then, are men exhorted to pray at all?<\/i> If prayer be not heard, if supplication may possibly end in a failure, why does God so constantly, so earnestly, so strenuously constrain and command men to call upon him? Would it not be a heartless cruelty on my part, if I saw a poor farmer who could not pay his way, if I exhorted him to plough upon a rock, and scatter the little seed he had upon soil where I knew it never could grow? Or if a king impose upon his poor subject a law that he should plough the sea-shore and harrow it, and exercise all the arts of husbandry upon it, when he was perfectly aware that not a single grain could ever bless the husbandman\u2019s toil? What would you think of any man who should advise a thirsty wretch to pump an empty well? Suppose some sovereign should enjoin it upon his subject, seeing he is ready to die of thirst, to let the bucket down where there is no water, and to continue to do it without ceasing \u2014 to be always letting down the bucket, and always winding it up, with the absolute certainty that no good can come of it! And do you think that God, who commands men to pray and not to faint, would bid them do it, if no harvest could be reaped from it? Does he tell them to continue in prayer, to \u201cpray without ceasing\u201d \u2014 to watch unto prayer, to arise in the night-watches, and cry unto him \u2014 and yet, after all, has he settled it that he will be deaf to their entreaties and despise their cries? Would it not be a piece of heartless tyranny, if the Queen should wait upon a man in his condemned cell, and encourage him to petition her favor, nay, command him to do it, saying to him, \u201cIf I do not send you at once an answer, send another petition, and another; send to me seven times, yea, continue to do it, and never cease so long as you live; be importunate and you will prevail.\u201d And what if the Queen should tell the man the story of the importunate widow, should describe to him the case of the man who, by perseverance, obtained the three loaves for his weary friend, and say to him, \u201cEven so, if you ask you shall receive,\u201d and yet all the while should intend never to pardon the man, but had determined in her heart that his death-warrant should be signed and sealed, and that on the execution morning he should be launched into eternity? I ask you, brethren, whether this were consistent with royal bounty, whether this were fit conduct for a gracious monarch. And can you for a moment suppose that God would bid you, as he does each one of you, to seek his face \u2014 would he bid you come to him through Jesus Christ \u2014 and yet, secretly in his heart, intend never to be gracious at the voice of your cry?<\/p>\n
2. <\/b>Further, for a second argument: if prayer could be offered continuously, and God could be sought earnestly, but no mercy found, then he who prays would be worse of than he who does not pray<\/i>; and supplication would be an ingenious invention for increasing the ills of mankind. For a man who does not pray has less woes than a man who does pray, if<\/i> God be not the answerer of prayer. The man who prays is made to hunger: shall he hunger, and not eat! Were it not, then, better never to hunger? How then can it be said, \u201cBlessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness!\u201d The man who prays, thirsts; as the hart panteth after the water brooks, so he pants after his God; but if God will never give him the living water to drink, is not a thirsty soul much more wretched than one who never learned to thirst at all? He who has been taught to pray has great desires and wants; his heart is an aching void which the world can never fill; but he that never prays has no longings and pipings after God; he that never makes supplication feels no ungratified desires after eternal things: if, then, a man may have these vehement longings, and yet God will never grant them, then assuredly the man who prays is in a worse position than he who prays not. How can this be? Has God so constituted the world \u2014 that virtue shall entail misery, and that vice shall engender happiness? Can it be, while God is the moral ruler of the universe, that he will reward the man who forgets him, and will pour misery into the soul of the man who earnestly seeks his face? \u2019Tis blasphemy to suppose it. The beasts in the field do not lament that they are not immortal, for they never had aspirations after immortality; a gracious God has limited their ambition to their attainments: but if the ox could groan after heaven, if the sheep could pray for a resurrection, it were a wretched creature indeed to be denied these things. So the ungodly man, like the beast of the field, has no longing after God\u2019s favor; no yearnings after eternal life; no desire to be conformed to the image of Christ; and his ambitions are so far limited to what he gains: but shall it be that a soul shall pant to be like God, shall thirst to be reconciled to his Maker, shall hunger even to faintness, that he may find \u201cpeace with God through Jesus Christ,\u201d and yet shall such desires as these be only given to make him wretched? I cannot suppose such a thing. The absurdity of imagining that the man who does<\/i> pray, would be by God put in a worse position than the man who does not, seems to me to be at once convincing, that the earnest, faithful prayer, shall certainly through the merit of Christ prevail with God.<\/p>\n
3. <\/b>But I go a step further. If God do not hear prayer, since it is clear that in that case the praying man would be more wretched than the careless sinner, then it would follow that God would be the author of unnecessary misery<\/i>. Now we know that this is inconsistent with the character of our God. We look around the world, and we see punishment for sin, but no punishment for good desires. We discover that the fall has brought us loss and ruin; and we know that there is a dreadful hell where justice shall be executed to the uttermost; but I see no chamber of arbitrary torture, where God the Almighty takes pleasure in the undeserved pangs and unmerited groans of his own creatures; I do not see a single invention made by God, in order unnecessarily to give pain; I find not a joint of my body, nay, not a sinew or a muscle, that is intended to cause me anguish; they may all be racked with aches and pains, since I am a fallen, sinful man; but the body was not organized with a view to pain, but for pleasure. And think you that God would ingeniously put up a mercy-seat to increase human misery by a mockery of grace, a mimicry of bounty? Do you dream that he would send out commands to men, obedience to which would entail upon them greater sorrow than disobedience could bring? Think you that he would woo them with outstretched hands to be more wretched than they were before? Would he be so false and heartless as to bid them come, knowing that their coming would only make them ten-fold more unhappy than they were already, because he did not intend to accept them when they did come? He that can think thus of my God does not know him; he who could dream that it is possible for him to invite and incite in you the prayer he has promised to hear, and yet, after all, would reject it, must surely be comparing Jehovah to Kalee or Juggernaut; he knows not what Jehovah is. Know you not that prayer itself is the work of God? Prayer is not more the act of the creature than the work of the Creator. Prayer is God in man coming back to God. Prayer is the fruit of divine life. And do you believe that God would himself write upon the human heart prayers, which he did not intend to hear, and that the Spirit would indite petitions which God the Eternal Father had determined to reject? No, no, no; we must, from this negative way of reasoning, be persuaded that our God will hear and answer prayer.<\/p>\n
4. <\/b>Should there still be some desponding ones, who think that God would invite them to pray, and yet reject them, I would put it on another ground. Would men do so?<\/i> Would even you, full of sin though you be, so treat your own fellow-creature? I know that we should hold up to scorn any rich man who should say to beggars in the streets, \u201cI live in such-and-such a place; it is six miles off; if you will all come to-morrow morning at eight o\u2019clock, and knock at my door, repeating my son\u2019s name, I will supply your wants,\u201d and when he had collected the poor beggars, should let them stand and knock according to his bidding till they were weary, and never grant them an answer, \u2014 if he should let them know that there was bread within the house, but not a morsel for them. We should say, \u201cWell, if men must make themselves merry with practical jokes, let them not be carried on upon the poor and needy; let them find some other victims, and let not the helpless mendicants of the streets be the victims of such foolish mirth. And shall it be possible for my God to be less generous than men? Do we not find continually, if there be an hospital opened, to relieve the sick, or to heal the maimed, that when much injured persons make an application they are received? I know not that there are any peculiar bowels of compassion in those who have the oversight of the hospital, but I do know this, there is so much of the milk of human kindness in their bosoms, that the moment a poor wretch is brought to the door almost dead \u2014 if it were a slighter case they might take some exception \u2014 the very desperateness of the case throws open the hospital door, and at once the patient is admitted. Man is in such a case, near to die, nay, condemned and utterly ruined by his sin; and I do not believe that my God will shut his door in the face of misery, but I am persuaded that the very desperateness of the case will make an appeal to his heart, and he will<\/i> fulfill his promise. It is a low ground to put it on, I will admit, for God is infinitely more loving than man; \u201cAs the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts,\u201d and if a man<\/i> would not reject the supplication which he had himself invited \u2014 if a man\u2019s<\/i> heart would be moved to pity by the cry of misery \u2014 much more the heart of the all-bounteous God, whose very name is love, and whose nature it is to give liberally without upbrading. I am persuaded, therefore, that he must and will hear prayer.<\/p>\n
5. <\/b>Yet further: have you forgotten that this is God\u2019s memorial, by which he is distinguished from the false Gods?<\/i> \u201cThey have ears, but they hear not;\u201d hands have they, but they help not their worshippers; and feet have they, but they come not to the rescue of their votaries; but our<\/i> God made the heavens, and this is his memorial, \u201cThe God that heareth prayer.\u201d Has not David put it \u2014 \u201cO thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come?\u201d One of the standing proofs of the Deity of Jehovah is, that he does to this day answer the supplications of his people. But suppose that any one among you could seek his face day after day, week after week, and month after month, and yet he should refuse you; where would be his \u201cmemorial?\u201d O if yonder poor sinner, with tears and plaintive cries were really to besiege the mercy-seat in the name of Jesus, and God the Almighty Father should give him a refusal, and drive him away, I say, where is the boasted name of God? I grant you, the answer may tarry, but only that it may be the more sweet when it comes. I know the ships of heaven may be long upon the voyage, but only that they may bring a richer cargo to you; but come they must. \u201cIf the vision tarry, wait for it; it shall<\/i> come; it shall not tarry.\u201d For otherwise, I say, where is the glory of God? How is he distinguished above Baal? How is he exalted above the gods of the heathen? Did not Elijah put it to the test? The priests of Baal cried: they cut themselves with knives; from morning to evening their shrieks went up to heaven, and the sarcastic prophet said, \u201cCry aloud, for he is a god; peradventure he is on a journey, or he sleepeth, and must be awakened.\u201d All day long the lancers drew forth priestly blood; but no voice came from Baal. Clear the stage, and let God\u2019s servant come. He lifts his hands to heaven, and cries: \u201cLord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.\u201d Down falls the fire of the Lord, consuming not only the bullock, but the stones of the altar, and the water in the trench; for our God does<\/i> hear prayer. Now do you see, soul, that your despair, when you say he will not hear you, really takes away from God one of his grandest titles? You do him a serious dishonor in supposing that he will refuse to hear you; you cast mire upon the escutcheon of Deity, and think unworthily of the Most High, when you imagine for an instant that he would teach you to pray, and come to him through the blood of Christ, and yet refuse to hear the voice of your groaning?<\/p>\n
6. <\/b>Surely these arguments might well suffice; but if unbelief has as many lives as a cat, as John Bunyan says, I will deal it the full nine blows and one over, to make assurance doubly sure.<\/p>\n
If God do not hear prayer \u2014 suppose such to be the case for a moment \u2014 then I want to know what is the meaning of his promises. I ask, with all reverence, how he shall make his veracity to be proved, if he do not answer his people. Let me give you one or two of his own promises \u2014 \u201cCall upon me in the day of trouble, and I will<\/i> deliver thee, and thou shalt<\/i> glorify me.\u201d \u201cHe shall<\/i> call upon me, and I will<\/i> answer him.\u201d What means this, by the mouth of Esaias \u2014 \u201cHe will<\/i> be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will<\/i> answer thee.\u201d That is neither more nor less than a falsehood, if God do not hear prayer. What means this splendid passage \u2014 \u201cAnd it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will<\/i> hear?\u201d And this by Zechariah \u2014 \u201cThey shall<\/i> call on my name, and I will<\/i> hear them; I will say, it is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God?\u201d Can there be words plainer than these, from the lips of the Savior \u2014 \u201cAsk, and it shall<\/i> be given you; seek, and ye shall<\/i> find; knock, and it shall<\/i> be opened to you; for every one<\/i> that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall<\/i> be opened:\u201d \u201cIf ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?\u201d And what is the meaning of this great promise \u2014 \u201cAnd all<\/i> things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall<\/i> receive?\u201d Are not these so many hot shot at the very heart of unbelief? I begin at that ancient writing, the book of Job. \u201cHe shall<\/i> pray unto God, and he will<\/i> be favorable unto him, and he shall<\/i> see his face with joy.\u201d The Psalms are crowded with such promises, and even the prophet Joel, who is full of thunder and lightning \u2014 even he says, \u201cWhosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered<\/i>;\u201d which the apostle Paul, in the epistle to the Romans, a little varies, and puts it \u2014 \u201cFor whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved<\/i>.\u201d Even James, who is all practical, and very little comforting, cannot get through the epistle without saying, \u201cDraw nigh to God, and he will<\/i> draw nigh to you.\u201d Why, even under the old law, Deuteronomy had a promise like this \u2014 \u201cIf thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt<\/i> find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.\u201d Under the rule of the kings, we find it written, \u201cIf thou seek him, he will be found of thee.\u201d So might I go on quoting promises, until you were weary with hearing my voice. But, my dear friends, I ask you, if God do not hear prayer, after saying what I have repeated to you, where is his truthfulness? He must<\/i> be true, if every man be a har; his own word must<\/i> stand, though heaven and earth should pass away. Like flowers, ye nations, ye shall die; like a dream, ye kingdoms, ye shall melt; like a shadow, O ye mountains, ye shall dissolve; like a wreck, O earth, thou shalt be broken into pieces; like a worn-out gesture, O ye heavens, ye shall be rolled up; but every word of God is sure and stedfast, \u201cyea and amen in Christ Jesus.\u201d \u201cThe voice said, Cry; and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.\u201d How can we find arguments stronger than this?<\/p>\n
7. <\/b>Another stroke. If God hath virtually said to us, \u201cPray, but I will never hear you; seek ye my face in vain;\u201d then I ask, what is the meaning of all the provisions which he has already made for hearing prayer? I see a way to God; \u2019tis paved with stones inlaid in the fair crimson of the Savior\u2019s blood. I see a door; it is the wounded side of Jesus. Why that blood shed, if God heareth not prayer? Why that side rent if, after all, the vail still shuts out from access to the mercy-seat? Moreover, in heaven I see a Mediator between God and man; but why a Mediator, if God will not be at peace with man nor hear his prayer? Moreover, I see an Intercessor; I see the Son of God stretch his wounded hands and point to his side, wearing the bejewelled breastplate on his forefront; but why the breastplate, and why the high priest, if prayer be a futile thing and God has said, \u201cSeek ye my face in vain?\u201d Moreover, I see all the marvellous transactions of the covenant from first to last; and I ask, why all this, if it is not meant for sinners who seek his face? Moreover, I see the blessed Spirit; he himself condescends to dwell in us and make \u201cintercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.\u201d and I ask of ye, O melancholy and despair, why this Spirit sent? why this blood shed? why this Savior ordained and exalted on high \u201cto give repentance and remission of sins?\u201d if remission is never to be given, repentance never to be accepted, and intercession never to be heard? By every wound of Jesus I persuade thee, sinner, to believe that God will hear thee; by every drop of that precious blood, by every cry of that dying lip, by every tear of that languid eye, by every smart of that bruised back, nay, by every jewel of that crown of glory, by every precious stone upon that priestly breastplate, by every honor which God the Father hath bestowed upon our Lord Jesus; yea, by all the power of the blessed Spirit, by all the energy with which he raised Christ from the dead, by all the \u201cpower\u201d with which he is acknowledged to be God, I do conjure you, never doubt but that God will in due time be gracious to the voice of your cry.<\/p>\n
8. <\/b>Still to pursue this dying foe, whom methinks we might have slain outright by this time, I use the argument which the apostle uses upon the resurrection. If God hear not prayer, what gospel have I to preach?<\/i> As the apostle said, concerning the resurrection, \u201cThen is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins.\u201d If God hear not prayer, I say, our preaching is vain. We are sent to tell men that, \u201cthough their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be whiter than snow,\u201d if they will turn from their evil ways and seek the Lord; but if they can turn; and yet not be accepted, I for my part renounce my commission, for I have not a gospel that is worth the preaching; and surely you<\/i> would say, \u201cIt is not a gospel worth our acceptance.\u201d If prayer, offered in Jesu\u2019s name, be not accepted, taking Paul\u2019s line of argument, then is not Christ accepted; if the sinner\u2019s plea, \u201cfor Jesu\u2019s sake,\u201d be not heard, then is not Christ heard; and if Christ be not heard and accepted, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is vain, yea, and we are found false witnesses for God, because we have testified of God that he heareth the intercession of Jesus, whom he heareth not if he hear not those who plead his name. If you could once prove that true prayer could be rejected of God, it is not the corner-stone of the gospel, but still it is a most important one, and if you could take it away you would even disturb the keystone of the heavenly arch.<\/p>\n
9. <\/b>Further, my brethren \u2014 and here we strife the ninth blow \u2014 if this could be removed, where were the believer\u2019s hope?<\/i> Hang the heavens in sackcloth, let the sun be turned to darkness, let the moon become a clot of blood, if the mercy seat can be proved to be a mockery. Oh! if God would let his people cry, and not be gracious, better for us that we had never been born! The most happy saint, in his best moment, would be wretched as the damned in hell, if he were persuaded that God did not, and could not hear prayer. What would we have to comfort us in our hours of trouble, what to strengthen us in our times of labor, what refuge from the storm, what covert from the heat \u2014 where, where, my brethren, could we fly, if the throne of grace were a fiction? Heaven, sure, were shut, when the gate of prayer were shut. Surely every blessing had passed away at once, when prayer ceased to avail; the ladder which Jacob saw would be drawn up into heaven, and henceforth there would be no intercourse between God and man. Glory be to God, such a thing cannot be! Sinner, thou thinkest that God would never hurt his saints, but that he would reject thee<\/i>. But see, if he refuses to hear thee<\/i>, the rule is broken, and the rule being once broken, and there being one<\/i> exception, the whole stability of the saints\u2019 comfort is removed at a blow.<\/p>\n
10. <\/b>I close this negative view of the subject by observing, in the tenth place, What would they say in hell, if a soul could really seek the Lord, and be refused? Oh! the unholy merriment of devils! \u201cHere\u2019s a soul,\u201d says one, \u201cthat perished though it prayed; here\u2019s a hand that touched the hem of Jesu\u2019s garment, but that garment did not heal; here are lips scorched with burning fire which once were warm with living prayer.\u201d Methinks they would drag such a one in triumph through the streets of Tophet; they would crowd the thoroughfares to look on; and oh! what dread acclaim of scorn! what thundering laughter would go up! \u201cAha! Aha! Aha!\u201d they would say, \u201cwhere is the boasted Savior now? He lied unto men\u2019s souls; he promised, but he did not give; he taught them to pray, and made them begin their hell on earth, and then threw them into hell for ever.\u201d Could it be? Oh, could it be? What would praying men do in hell? I remember that story of Mrs. Ryland, a good Christian woman, who, when she lay a-dying, was very, very sad, and her husband said to her, \u201cYou are dying, my dear?\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d said she. \u201cAnd where are you going?\u201d said he. She rephed, \u201cAh! John, I\u2019m going to hell.\u201d \u201cAnd what will you do there?\u201d said he to her. Well, that had not struck her, what she should do there. \u201cDo you think,\u201d he said, \u201cyou will leave off praying, Betsy?\u201d \u201cNo, John,\u201d she said, \u201ceven if I were in hell I would pray.\u201d \u201cOh! but,\u201d said he, they\u2019d say, \u201cHere\u2019s praying Betsy Ryland here; turn her out; this isn\u2019t a fit place for her.\u201d And so methinks if one of you could go there with a prayer upon your lips, pleading and crying, they would either rejoice over you, as a proof that God was not true, or else they would say, \u201cTurn her out; we cannot bear prayers in hell; we could not bear to hear the voice of earnest supplication among the shrieks and curses of lost spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have been arguing against a thing which you know theoretically is not possible; but yet there are some who, when they are under conviction of sin, still cleave to this dark delusion, that God will not hear them<\/i>. Therefore, I have tried by blow after blow, if possible, to smite this fear dead. When Jael did but take one nail and hammer, she was able to smite Sisera through his brain with it; since I have used ten nails, and have given ten as lusty strokes with the hammer as I could give them, O may God make them strong enough to strike the Sisera of unbelief dead at your feet!<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
II. <\/b>Now, for a very little time, The Positive View Of The Question. That the Lord does hear prayer, we think may be positively substantiated by the following considerations.<\/p>\n
For the Lord to hear prayer is consistent with his nature<\/i>. Whatever is consistent with God\u2019s nature, in the view of a sound judgment, we believe is true. Now, we cannot perceive any attribute of God which would stand in the way of his hearing prayer. It might be supposed that his justice would; but that has been so satisfied by the atonement of Christ, that it rather pleads the other way. Since Christ has \u201cput away sin,\u201d since he has purchased<\/i> the blessing, it seemeth but just that God should accept those for whom Jesus died, and give the blessing which Christ has bought. All the attributes of God say to a sinner, \u201cCome, come; come to the throne of grace, and you shall have what you want.\u201d Power<\/i> puts out his strong arm and cries, \u201cI<\/i> will help thee; fear not.\u201d Love<\/i> smiles through her bright eyes, and cries, \u201cI have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with the bands of kindness have I drawn thee.\u201d Truth<\/i> speaks in her clear, plain language, saying, \u201cHe that seeketh findeth; to him that knocketh it shall<\/i> be opened.\u201d Immutability<\/i> says, \u201cI am God, I change not, therefore ye are not consumed.\u201d Every single attribute of the divine character \u2014 but you can think of these as well as I can \u2014 pleads for the man who prays, and I do not know \u2014 I never dreamed of a single attribute of Deity which could enter an objection. Therefore, methinks, if the thing really will glorify<\/i> God, and not dishonor him, he will certainly do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh! but,\u201d you say, \u201cI am such a great sinner.\u201d That gives me another argument. Would it not greatly extol the love and the grace of God<\/i> for him to give his grace to those that deserve it least? To give to a man what he deserves is no charity; to bestow a favor upon those who have a little<\/i> offended, is no very great act of baneficence; but to choose out the biggest rebel in his dominions, and to say to that rebel, \u201cI forgive you;\u201d yea, to take that rebel and to adopt him into his family, adorn him with jewels and set a crown of gold upon his head; is this the manner of men, O Lord God? Nay, it is in such cases that we see the broad distinction between the leniency of human sovereigns and the mighty sovereign grace which is in the Ring of kings. The worse you make your case out to be, the better is my argument. The worse the disease, the more credit to the physician who heals; the worse the sin, the more glory to the astounding mercy which puts it away; the greater the rebel, the more triumphant that grace which makes that rebel into a child. I say that the greatness of your sin may act as a foil to set forth the brightness of God\u2019s love. And herein, because the hearing of your unworthy prayers, and the listening to the cry that comes out of your polluted lips; because this<\/i> would honor him, I am persuaded he will do it.<\/p>\n
Further, though these two reasons would suffice, let me notice that it is harmonious with all his past actions<\/i>. If you want a history of God\u2019s dealings with men, turn to the 107th Psalm. There you find travelers lost like you, in a desert; they wander in a wilderness in a solitary way; they find no city to dwell in; the water is spent in the bottle; the bread is exhausted from the camels\u2019 backs; they find no well; they perceive no way; they follow this path, then that. At last, hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted within them, and up from the desert\u2019s parched sand there arose to the burning sky the voice of wailing: \u201cO God, spare us, and let us live.\u201d How is it written? \u201cHe delivered them out of their distresses; and he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation;\u201d for it saith, \u201che satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.\u201d That is not told us as the exception, but as the rule. This is God\u2019s way of dealing with men. When they are lost and turn to him, he hears them. \u201cAh!\u201d you say, \u201cI am lost, but I am not like those travelers. I am lost by reason of my own sin.\u201d The next case in this Psalm will suit you. Here we find rebels brought into prison; they have been rebelling against the Word of God, and they have condemned the counsel of the Most High, therefore he brought them down by labor; they fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto God in their trouble. Did he hear them? These were \u201crebels,\u201d fitly and properly put in prison, justly and rightly fettered with iron. Do you wear the fetters of conscience and the chains of terror? Are you in the prison of the law? So long as you are not in the final prisonhouse of hell, if you call upon God in your trouble, you will find it with you as it was with them. \u201cHe brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.\u201d \u201cOh! but,\u201d says another, \u201cI have got into trouble through my sin but I do not know how to pray as I should, I am such a stupid blockhead.\u201d Then the next case is yours. \u201cFools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.\u201d One of these \u201cfools\u201d had brought on disease by his sin, and he was so sore sick that he lost all appetite, he abhorred all manner of meat, and drew near to the gates of death. This fool, what sort of prayer did he<\/i> pray? Why, a fool\u2019s prayer, certainly; but a fool\u2019s prayer God will hear, as it is written, \u201cHe sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.\u201d So, if you be never so great a fool, and the suffering you now feel has been brought on you through your own folly, yet he will<\/i> hear you. \u201cAh! but,\u201d you say, \u201cI have been such a bragging fellow, such a boaster, and I have done such terrible deeds in my day.\u201d What is the next case? The case of the sailor. You know, we generally reckon that seafaring men do not care for much; they are dare-devils, and rap out an oath without compunction; and in the olden times, I dare say, they were worse than they are now, so that when they did get ashore they were a very pattern of everything mischievous and bad. But here we have a crew of sailors in a storm; they had, no doubt, been cursing and swearing in the calm, but here comes a storm. They go up to heaven, and then they go down again into the depths: \u201cThey reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man,\u201d for they cannot walk across the deck; the ship reels, \u201cthey are at their wits end,\u201d and they think, \u201cSurely she will go to the bottom.\u201d Then they cry unto God. There was no chaptain on board. Who prayed? Why, the boatswain, and the captain, and the crew, and I dare say they did not know how to put the words together; they were more used to swearing than to praying: but they went down on their knees on deck, clinging to mast, and bulwark and tiller, and they cried, \u201cO God! O God! save us; the waterfloods swallow us up; God of the tempest deliver us.\u201d And did he hear the sailor\u2019s prayer \u2014 the frantic cry of sinking men? Read here. \u201cHe maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.\u201d Well, well, now you that have been accustomed to cursing and swearing, and say, \u201cWhat is the use of my praying?\u201d here is a case which just suits you. And this is the rule, I say again, not the exception; and I argue, therefore, from the past acts and ways of God, that he will now hear prayer.<\/p>\n
Besides, here is another argument for you. What does He mean by his promises? As I said negatively, if he did not hear, where were his promises? \u2014 so I say positively this time, because of his promises, he must<\/i> hear. God is free, but his promises bind him; God may do as he wills, but he always wills to do what he has said he will do; we have no claim upon God, but God makes a claim for us; when he gives a promise, we may confidently plead it. I venture to say, that promises made in Scripture are God\u2019s engagements, and that as no honorable man<\/i> ever runs back from his engagements, so a God of honor and a God of truth cannot, from the necessity of his nature, suffer one of his words to fall to the ground. In this little book, Clarke\u2019s Promises<\/i>, which one likes to have always near to hand, you find two or three chapters containing collected promises of the Lord, that he will answer secret prayer, and listen to the voice of penitents; but I shall not occupy our time with promises which you can all find in your Bibles at home. Only \u201clet God be true, and every man a liar.\u201d If God promises, he must and will perform, or else he were not true.<\/p>\n
While we dare to say, that God\u2019s answering prayer is certified by abundance of facts in our own experience, we observe, that the best proof is to try for yourself<\/i>. It is said that there is no learning to ride except on a horse\u2019s back; and I believe there is no learning any truth except by experiencing it. If you want to know the depravity of the human heart, you must find it out when you look at your daily imperfections; and if you would know that God hears prayer, you must test the fact, for you will never learn it through my saying, \u201cHe heard me<\/i>\u201d \u2014 you will only know it through his having heard you<\/i>; and I would, therefore, exhort you \u2014 all of you who are now within reach of this voice of mine \u2014 since it is not a peradventure, a chance, a may-be, a haphazard, but since it is a dead<\/i> \u2014 I must not use that word \u2014 since it is a living<\/i> certainty, that \u201che that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth,\u201d go to your houses, fall upon your knees, and pray to God; pray to him even now in your pews, to save your souls. Ambition tempts you to disappointment; riches charm you to speculations which will lead to failure; your own passions drive you to pleasures which end in pain; the best the world can promise you is a perhaps<\/i>; but my Master presents to you \u201cthe sure<\/i> mercies of David\u201d \u2014 certainties, infallible certainties. Will you not have them? O may the Spirit of God lead you to accept them. In your pew you may pray; in that aisle the silent cry may go up to heaven; in your little narrow chamber, or in the saw-pit, or in the garden, or the field, or in the street, or in the prison-cell \u2014 wherever you<\/i> have a heart to pray, God<\/i> has an ear to hear. No words are wanting, except such as spring spontaneously to the lip. Tell him you are a wretch undone, without his sovereign grace; tell him you have no hope in yourself; tell him you have no merits; tell him you cannot save yourself. Say, \u201cLord<\/i>, save, or I perish!\u201d It was Peter\u2019s sinking prayer; but it preserved him from drowning. Say, \u201cGod be merciful to me, a sinner! \u201cIt was the publican\u2019s prayer in the temple; it justified him. Bring a suffering Savior before a gracious God; point to the wounds of Jesus, and say, \u201cO God! though my heart be hard as a millstone, Christ\u2019s heart was broken; though my conscience be untender and callous, yet the flesh of Christ was tender, and it smarted sore; though I<\/i> can give no atonement, Christ gave it \u2014 though I<\/i> bring no merits, yet I plead the merits of Jesus.\u201d And let me say to you, pray as if you meant it, and continue as Elijah did, till you get the blessing. I would to God that some of you would never rise from your knees till God had heard you. Plead with him as a man pleads for his life. Clutch the horns of the altar as the drowning man clutches the life-buoy to which he clings. Lay hold on God, as Jacob grasped the angel, and do not let him go except he bless you; for \u201cthus saith the Lord, I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye my face in vain!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NO. 508 A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 10TH, 1863, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON. \u201cI have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.\u201d \u2014 Isaiah 14:19. WE might gain much … Continue reading “COMFORT TO SEEKERS FROM WHAT THE LORD HAS NOT SAID.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}